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Rating: 4 out of 5
On my journey to watch every movie that won an Academy Award in Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress, the films make me feel blah are musicals. As I have said before, or everything I have written about a musical, they are not my favorite. I guess I am a hypocrite because I love Disney animation films, and I guess those are musicals. It is just something about seeing people and singing that throws me off. If it is a film with straight singing and no dialogue, you can count me out. The two musicals that I like are the Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Well, the time had come to watch the Sound of Music. I am going to admit that I was dreading it because the movie is like 3 hours long. 3 HOURS! How much music do these hills have? Apparently, they have a ton of them because people were singing all over the freaking place.
The Sound of Music starts off in 1930’s Austria. Maria (Dame Andrews), a trouble-making young woman who seems to not be able to become a nun in the nunnery. Navy Captain Georg Von Trapp (Plummer) writes to the convent asking for a governess to handle his seven mischievous children; the nuns are like, “We got the best person!” and send Maria away to take up the job. Maria finds out that the Captain’s wife is dead and runs the house like a naval base. The children are unhappy and resentful of the governesses that their father keeps hiring and have managed to run each of them off one by one. Actually, they have run off eleven of them so far. These kids are hardcore. Maria is met with hostility, but her kindness, understanding, and sense of fresh air draw the kids to her. Eventually, the Captain and Maria find themselves falling in love with each other. As their happy lives seem to prosper, Austria is about to come under the control of Germany. With this, the Captain soon finds himself drafted into the German Navy and forced to fight against his own country and put his children’s lives at risk.
Okay, so since this is a musical, I feel like I must start off with the songs. I will say that the songs in this movie are great and memorable. I remember singing some in my elementary music class. The obvious song that starts off the whole film is Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music. Andrews sang her little heart out with this one on top of that giant hill. Once again, them hills must’ve had a lot of songs in them. Another song that actually made me laugh was Sixteen Going on Seventeen. The reason is that everyone thinks they are grown when they hit seventeen. As Stephen A. Smith says, “You still wet behind the ears, breath smellin’ like Similac.” Another song that is great and actually an eye-opener is Maria. You know you a troublemaker when the nuns sing a whole song about you. Damn, now that I think about it, there are a freakin ton of songs in this film. Okay, a few more, and then I’ll talk about something else. A Few of My Favorite Things was another song that I liked. The tune was catchy, and it made you feel happy inside. The song that I had sung in elementary school was the all-time classic Do Ra Me. How can you forget about this song? My god, does this film have a lot of songs, and this is like the tip of the iceberg.
Now for the story. Oh, the story! It had me all the way until intermission. 3 HOURS! You could’ve cut this down by at least 30-45 minutes. Overall, the film was excellent, and I really enjoyed the whole thing. It was just a little long for me. The premise of the entire movie is a girl going to take care of some kids. One of the film’s side aspects is that it is set around the time when Nazi Germany invades and takes over the country. Pretty much the whole movie is just Maria gaining the kids’ trust and love, and then the father falling in love with her. There isn’t too much to the film than that. Hey, the movie/play was also in the Vin Diesel film, The Babysitter!
I loved the beginning when the nuns were like, “Maria, you got to get up outta here because you just too wild.” That is messed up, but you know what is even crazier??? When Maria shows up at the house. First, how the freak you got 7 kids! Dude and his wife were getting it on. Didn’t think about wrapping it up because DAMN! Also, The Captain had a major strict plan and a stick up his ass. First off, if you have 12 governesses and the last one only lasted for 2 hours, then yo kids are spoiled! Who blows a whistle to call upon your 7 kids like they were dogs. That shit is crazy. Kids march to the beat of a whistle and are in order from oldest to youngest. They march out and state their name. I want to give a BIG UP to Maria. When she said, a whistle is for dogs and cats and animals and then whistled at the Captain.
There are a ton of memorable scenes that you have seen in other places like television and film. There are two scenes that stand out the most. The first scene is when Maria is teaching the kids Do Ra Me. They are on top of some hill, and everything is so peaceful. The song is pretty catchy and one that is taught in most music classes. The other scene that is probably the most prominent is when the kids have to leave the party and go to bed. One by one, they sing a little part, and they say good before going to bed. Family Guy even did a parody of it.
The scene that somewhat threw me off but knew it was meaningful for the film is the Nazi invasion of the city and country. I liked how the Captain didn’t believe at all what the party stood for and didn’t want his kids to go through the horrors that were about to happen. I liked how he was like, “We Out!” Now, did you have to go over a freaking mountain? That is pretty tough for some kids, but I give it to you.
Let’s give a HUGE applause to the cinematography. My god, was it good. The opening scene showing the beautiful landscape and countryside from the snow-filled mountains to the green acres to a castle on a lake was a sight to see. No lie, the hill that Maria first sung on was a nice place to hold a picnic. The houses were grand, and just seeing the countryside just took your breath away.
Now I’m not going to spend too much time on the characters because there are plenty of them. Julie Andrews did the damn thing as Maria von Trapp. She was sweet, caring, loving, and everything you want in a governess. Andrews can sing and a joy to watch as an actress. This role wasn’t on the level of Mary Poppins, but she did the damn thing. The late and great Christopher Plummer was great as Captain von Trapp. He was stern with that stick up his ass, but the scene that changed your opinion about him was when he started to sing. Actually, it took me a while to realize that it was Plummer because I hardly have ever seen a movie with him as a young person.
Even though I don’t like musicals, the Sound of Music was pretty good. It was a little long for me. The songs are outstanding, and the story can still be entertaining for today’s audience. Andrews and Plummer are excellent in their roles. Have fun watching a film that has many scenes parodied over and over again or, as the film states, Goodbye.
